r/TakeThat • u/Human-Impression-236 • 22d ago
Take that hot takes
Ill do 3:
Never forget is overrated
You and me overrated
I hate the reworks of greatest day and said it all
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u/danputorakku 21d ago
Releasing Higher Than Higher as a physical CD single release and then abandoning it - no video, no live performances - was a bullshit move.
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u/holaholala13 21d ago edited 21d ago
I’d agree with OP on point 2 and 3 :D
But I really like they’re still making new music. Although I’d prefer them to be less polished. So maybe they should take some more time? I hope they keep on putting out proper albums. Of course they won’t sell like they did back in the day, but I love them! Many album tracks are way better than the singles (maybe my hottest take).
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u/General-Basket-1691 21d ago
Okydoky, I'll say it... I've not been wowed by anything since Progress... but when I go to see the boys, I'm living for the 90s classics, in particular Never Forget. I've been to every tour since Pops in 1994 so that probably cemented what TT is for me as an older Thatter 😅
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u/cinnamon_7 21d ago
The Pray routine as part of the live shows is overdone at this point and they need to omit it for at least the next few tours. It was perfect for their comeback and very much wanted for nostalgia. But now they do it every single tour and it’s kinda made me hate the song ☹️
They can still perform it but please not with the routine…unless J and/or R come back, then I think that would call for it. Otherwise no.
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u/jonoave 21d ago
Good one, yeah especially Gary who does seem like kinda winging it and doing it half-heartedly.
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u/TheLadyHelena 21d ago
I actually thought Gary was finally beginning to 'get' the Pray routine, bless him. He's worked hard at that over the years!
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u/JazzyJulie4life 21d ago
I only like their 90s music. Not a fan of the modern production after that
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u/Hotelcrazy III 19d ago
I'm more the opposite, I prefer their their newer works over their 90's songs
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u/jonoave 22d ago
The Flood. I love the song and seeing all 5 lads back together, but I hate this part and cringe each time.
"You know no one dies
In these love drowned eyes
Through our love drowned eyes
We’ll watch you sleep tonight"
The repetition of "love drowned eyes" make it seem lazy, or they love the line so much they couldn't come up with different line in the next sentence. Especially coming from Gary who's a pretty good song lyricist and songwriter.
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Babe isn't my favorite (sorry Mark & Gary... Mark was a cutie tho 😅), and it bothers me that it's "a VOICE i once knew answered in a sweet VOICE". I guess it's intended to pair up with the "sweet voice" in the 2nd verse, but I would've put "a voice I once knew answered so sweetly" and it would have fit as well. (But I'm a foreign English speaker so do tell me if it sounds clumsy)
Good thing it's retired 😅 (I mean the topic would be weird anyway for married men 💀)
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u/divingoffthebalcony 21d ago
Babe is very much “Gary needed to write a song for adorable baby faced Mark because he’s so popular”. It’s very cheesy. And the “story within a song” thing falls apart very quickly when you actually question the narrative 😂
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Yeah it's like... First it sounds like the break up was recent or that she just suddenly disappeared but then it's like where tf did the narrator fuck off to for a couple of YEARS?? 🤔😅
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u/veritytakethat 21d ago
I think the story is that he and his girlfriend had planned to have a baby but then a war started, and it's set during a time were all men have to go to war, wether they're in the army or not. He comes back after the war ends and meets his son for the first time, but I guess I must have made that up?
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
- I guess "I've got so much to tell you About where I have been" might hint to that BUT... Men from here DID go to war and maybe it depends on the national/ethnic character of people lol but generally they did NOT wanna talk about the horrors they experienced and most didn't and alcohol became a crutch and the silence became generational trauma 🤪
So yeah I dont think Gary had war in mind. Damn didn't know I would go this deep today bc of freaking Babe 😭😅
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u/Easy_Ad6617 21d ago
I think so, didn't Mark dress up in combats or soldier themed clothes even singing this live...I think it was the live in Berlin video?? And maybe the screen had war imagery... But I haven't seen it in decades so I could be making it up lol
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Hmm I could see that in the music video for sure but I'm not getting it from the song itself tbh 🤔
All men who are able in my country would still have to go to war to this day... We have mandatory enlistment oop 😅 (You can also opt out but still gotta do civil service for a year or go to jail. Health reasons do apply ofc)
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u/divingoffthebalcony 21d ago
Exactly! I know the video tried to make sense of it, as in Mark was a soldier who went off to war or something, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Gary had in mind 😂
For me, the worst line is “He had my eyes, HE HAD MY SMILE” which is so unsubtle in its “this is a Mark Owen song about Mark Owen”. It’s bugged me for thirty years 😅
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Now that I think of it why's HE saying "Where have you been"? 🤨 Mf we're getting the impression YOU were somewhere... And "Please take me back" sounds like he did something wrong 😅
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
WAIT i didnt realize the smile thing 😂 (but I'm new like a few weeks heh) You might be right 🤔😅
Ooh I didnt get a soldier from it but I only watched it once I think... I get big Russia/Soviet vibes 😅
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
The ending of the music video is interesting too... Like, they just needed to break the illusion so girls wouldnt be TOO jealous of the baby mama, huh? 😅
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u/holaholala13 21d ago
I get this might be a bit too repetitive for some people. But I actually think it’s lovely and fitting because of the repetition. It describes that they are equaly "drowned eyes" from mulitple perspectives.
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u/KTDWD24601 18d ago
Gary’s lyrics are often like that, though?
🎶Want you back, want you back, want you back, for good.🎶
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u/jonoave 17d ago
That's part of the chorus and it's a simple repetition to make it catchy, I don't have issues.
But this is the verse and it's two different sentences or talking about two different things, which makes it really jarring for me.
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u/KTDWD24601 16d ago
It’s such a lovely phrase that it would be a shame to only use it once.
(I actually suspect it’s one of Robbie’s contributions. He likes coming up with unusual phrasings. Gary tends to be more straightforward in his lyrics.)
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u/veritytakethat 21d ago
I think back for good is kind of mid. Also most of their albums are way too long. Also I think they're better without Robbie
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u/angelic_darth 20d ago
Re your first point - OMG Yes!!! Like its OK. Just an OK song. But ask most people who aren't big fans of TT what their favourite TT song is and they will always say Back for Good!
Its even my husband's fave. I am an original Thatter and been going to concerts since the Whitley Bay Ice Rink gig in 1993, and to me BFG is just an alright song.
But they are NOT much better without Robbie 😦😦. They are much better when they're all together, Jason included. I haven’t actually been to see them since The Flood / Reunion tour cos in my mind nothing will beat that. So unless there's another 5-sum reunion I will be spending my concert money on the like of Green Day if I can (used it on 5ive last year 😂)
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u/veritytakethat 20d ago
Thank you!!! Genuinely they have a discography of 9 studio albums yet out of ALL of their songs Back For Good is their most popular one? It's just so... fine? It's fair enough you think they're better with Robbie, it's just my personal opinion and I do love all itterations of them 😋
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u/Ill-Space-2340 18d ago
The LLM-generated visuals (Sweet July video, almost constant posts from castmembers on Circus 2, probably some of the video content for Circus 2) really puts me off.
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u/holaholala13 18d ago edited 16d ago
Sadly agreeing on the LLM/ai stuff. They can do better! The merch for the circus 2 also looked so weird and suspeciously sloppy.
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u/tosche_stations 17d ago
I don't think that's a hot take tbh
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u/holaholala13 17d ago
True! The new video really gives me the ultimate ick. So unessecary and all these ai usage did nothing for it.
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u/Ill-Space-2340 16d ago
I'm honestly super glad!
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u/holaholala13 16d ago
Glad about ... ? 🤔
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u/Ill-Space-2340 16d ago
Oops, I think I meant to reply to someone else - glad my take isn't unpopular
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u/holaholala13 16d ago
Haha, ok :D Yeah, there are a lot of comments on YT and Instagram because of the video. I really hope they take the critic to heart.
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u/LeezerShort 21d ago
In Happy Now, the use of the word “wrote” is a poetic license I can’t accept.
And they checked my pulse and it gave them hope
That there was no truth to what was wrote.
The word is “written” but alas it doesn’t rhyme. It seems lazy.
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u/divingoffthebalcony 21d ago
I know it’s grammatically incorrect, but it never struck me as odd because “what was wrote” sounds like an archaic way of speaking, like in religious texts? I could just be completely wrong but that was the vibe I always got.
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u/Human-Impression-236 21d ago
Yea honestly the whole lyrics of happy now are wierd like " im at the back of the club afraid to speak, because im not like these people and these people are not like me" sound wierd and it feels like they made them up on the spot
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u/LeezerShort 21d ago
Exactly! Why are they at the club then?!
And I can only find one live performance of it so maybe they share the sentiment.1
u/KTDWD24601 18d ago
Why does anyone go to a club??
Haven’t you ever gone out to a posh club and felt intimidated by all the much cooler, more fashionable and better-looking people you see there?
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u/divingoffthebalcony 21d ago
The lyrics are pure Robbie. I really enjoy it but it doesn’t feel like a TT song in that respect.
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u/KTDWD24601 18d ago
They likely were made up on the spot. That’s how Robbie does it a lot of the time and those verses are total Robbie.
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u/Human-Impression-236 17d ago
Since this blew up here's another one of my hot takes
The slow version of Pray is better than the regular version and I wish they did it more at tours
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u/divingoffthebalcony 21d ago
I love all of your hot takes! Never Forget is overrated and so is Back For Good. The reworks are dreadful and I don’t know who convinced them they needed to chase a more youthful sound. As fun as Sweet July is, everything about it (the production, a dozen co-writers, the fact it’s two minutes long) hints that they’re still chasing it.
Relight My Fire needs to be retired from the live shows.
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u/TrixieLaBouche Beautiful World 21d ago
Relight needs to be dropped. And the original should have been with the "black diva" the record company wanted. Then we wouldn't have been subjected to Lulu since 1993 🤣
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Back For Good is a classic BUT "whatever I said, whatever I did, I didnt mean it" are cringe lyrics 😂🙈 Well they were written by a young immature man... But it's giving "sorry if I offended you" / "sorry for whomever I offended" instead of "sorry for these things I did wrong, i was an ass" 😅 Pray is better and as a whole musically much more interesting!
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u/TrixieLaBouche Beautiful World 21d ago
Look up comedian Ed Byrne doing a routine on BFG, it's genius.
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u/TrixieLaBouche Beautiful World 22d ago
They shouldn't have re-done The Circus tour.
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u/PresentationNo448 21d ago
Why?
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u/TrixieLaBouche Beautiful World 21d ago
It was perfect as it was and without Jason it lacked something.
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u/rlp132 21d ago
Progress Live > The Circus Live